In Huang Jixiong's mind, there is no army or officer these days who does not deduct soldiers' pay.
There will be trouble if you don't skimp.
But as long as the deductions are not too excessive and everyone can accept it, it will be difficult to make ends meet in troubled times, so it will be fine.
"Remember, this silver is not allowed to be scratched or damaged. It is not allowed to be weighed and used. Use it at face value. Otherwise, others have the right to refuse to accept it. It will also depreciate when it is recycled at the counter of the bank. If you are not used to it, go to the bank to exchange it for ordinary silver.
, and there is no additional fee. However, this kind of dragon silver will definitely be used more and more in the future, after all, it is convenient and easy to use."
The clerk still told him, but Huang Jixiong did not take these words seriously. Just like when Zhou Fugui deducted money from everyone, he always found a high-sounding reason, even if everyone knew that the reason was actually bullshit, but he knew it
Du Ming still has to cooperate superficially.
Twenty pieces of dragon silver.
I gave him a few more coins.
One denarius of five denarii, and four denarii of one denarius.
The money was put in a small cloth bag and jingled. The sound made Huang Jixiong's heart surge. He even thought about the names of the children in his mind for a moment. He would give birth to ten children, five sons and five daughters. The eldest son
The second son of Chengzong is called Jizu, and the third son is called Siye. The fourth son has not yet decided...
Twenty-five silver coins, even if the actual discount is only a little more than eighteen and a half, this is still wealth that he has never accumulated in his life. Regardless of whether he can still get three coins and nine silver coins every month in the future, this is it now.
The money was enough for him to ask a matchmaker to find a girl to be his wife.
He even looked at the heads of a bunch of wealthy gentrymen in Yanzhou in the distance, thinking that it might be a good deal to find a matchmaker to find a maid from their house as a wife. After so many houses were confiscated at once, these girls
The rings are also affected. Finding a wife at this time is probably much cheaper than usual.
Spend ten taels of silver to find someone who can have children. It doesn’t matter whether it’s good or not, as long as you have a strong body and can have children.
There were still more than eight taels of silver left, and he thought that he would have to give some to Shangguan later. Five taels of silver would definitely be enough for himself. Five taels of silver could not do much, but it was probably possible to rent a room, or
Take the money to go back to your hometown, hire someone to renovate your old thatched house, and then you will have a home.
I have a wife and a house, and I have an errand in the imperial camp. No matter how much I can get in the future, it seems that I will always be better than under Zhou Fugui before. If I can get one tael of silver home a month, then raising a child will be enough.
No problem.
One is born every year, two are born every three years...
If you are lucky and do not die in battle, your life will be complete when you grow old and your children grow up.
Thinking about it, Huang Jixiong even laughed out loud.
The scribe also laughed, and Huang Jixiong came to his senses. He looked at the scribe, and finally gritted his teeth and took out the smallest silver coin from the money bag, which was worth one penny. He handed it over quietly with trembling hands.
passed.
"Take it back, you can't hurt me."
The scribe didn't answer.
Huang Jixiong thought he was too little, so he hesitated for a moment, and finally took out the five-cent one.
"Take it back quickly. You have just entered our imperial camp. You still don't know that our imperial camp is the emperor's own army. We are well treated, but the rules are also strict. Previously, Fang Guoan's men deducted soldiers' pay and embezzled money and food. In the end, His Highness let those soldiers
If you stab those guys with a gun, they will die miserably, you must have heard of it."
"Don't dare to mess around. Now I'm a scribe and my salary is pretty good. I only get two taels of silver a day. This money is enough to give me peace of mind."
Huang Jixiong pushed it a few times, but when he saw that the man really refused to accept it, he happily took the money back into the bag and hid it in his arms.
The person who received the money never forgot the person who gave it to him.
With money in their arms, they kowtowed to His Royal Highness the Supervisor, who was wearing golden armor and was sitting under the banner of the Chinese army, and shouted long live.
Zhu Yihai held a silver dollar in his hand, and his heart was filled with ups and downs as he listened to the continuous shouts of thanks.
Liangtai's hands-on skills were quite good, and they quickly minted a large number of silver coins.
Although Zhu Yihai looked at these silver coins and felt that they were rough and not exquisite enough, it was good to be able to do this in a short period of time.
"Isn't your Highness distressed?" Huang Zongxi, the Zhejiang patrol officer who had just arrived, asked.
"Take it from the people and use it for the people. Money is in circulation and used where it should be used. It is meaningful. If you take all the money copied from the houses of these corrupt officials and evil gentry, you will not use it.
, then it actually means we don’t have the money.”
Although Huang Zongxi is about the same age as Zhu Yihai, he is a rare and knowledgeable scholar and has many unique insights into the economy.
He deeply agreed with Zhu Yihai's words, but he admired him even more for being a human being and having such insight.
"But it's still amazing to receive so much money all at once."
"There are so many people, but each person actually doesn't have much in his hands!" Zhu Yihai has long been used to it. He has come back after all his money has been spent. Today, he paid out so much money and killed hundreds of people to sacrifice the flag. The effect is visible to the naked eye.
.
The soldiers' support for him as the prisoner went one step further, and the officials and gentry who were watching the execution became a little more fearful.
At this moment, I'm afraid no one will turn a deaf ear to Zhu Yihai's words. No one is thinking about how to discount, but they are starting to think about how to fill the hole quickly.
"The soldiers have taken so much money. Aren't you afraid that they won't be interested in fighting as soldiers?"
"How much is this? Besides, most of them are poor bachelors. How many of them can handle this money?" Zhu Yihai gently transferred the money, "I plan to recover the money from the soldiers."
Huang Zongxi was stunned.
"Your Majesty, please don't do it. If you send something out and then withdraw it, you will make people resentful."
"Don't worry, am I the kind of person who is repeatedly dishonest?" Zhu Yihai smiled and said some of his thoughts. The soldiers in the imperial camp are now relatively young and strong, and most of them are bachelors, so he plans to do what he did before
Just like in the Sanwu period, the imperial camp came forward to help everyone buy brides in a group.
Huang Zongxi didn't follow for a while.
Zhu Yihai's idea was that the government would come forward to find the bride in some relatively backward and impoverished mountainous areas, give the bride's family a betrothal gift, and then marry her on a blind date with the soldiers.
"If the government comes forward to handle this matter, it will definitely cost less in terms of betrothal gifts than what they get themselves. And they generally don't have the time now, so the army and the government will take care of it. When the time comes, the mass wedding will be held directly in the military.
How lively is the scene when everyone gets married together?"
"According to previous practice, the military can also provide part of the betrothal money for them."
In the end, soldiers had to have a family after marrying a wife, so Zhu Yihai planned to sell some of the fields confiscated this time to the soldiers at a cheaper price.
Zhu Yihai would not make any money from marrying soldiers, but the fields that had just been confiscated and the government fields and military settlements that had been cleared could be sold to the soldiers. Even if they were sold at a discount or cheaper, the amount would still be large.
It can be sold for a lot of money.
According to the current market price, one acre of land in Yanzhou can be sold for four to five taels of silver. After this round of crackdowns, Zhu Yihai will be able to clear out about three to four hundred thousand acres of official and military land.
Official fields were originally the official fields during the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Later, there were returned official fields, no official fields, and cut-off official fields, academic fields, royal villas, horse pastures, livestock fields, gardens and cemeteries, and begging fields given by princes, nobles, and temples.
, military and civilian trade, farming, etc.
There are many names. If they were all sorted out, it would be estimated that 40% of them would be included.
How to deal with so much official land? Some people suggested that the government should allocate tenants to collect rent, while others suggested equalizing land and granting it to soldiers. Some suggested selling part of it to the private sector to raise military expenses.
Huang Zongxi suggested that all official land should be used as military farmland, part of which would be used for garrisoning and farming, and part of which would be rented out. The grain obtained would be used to feed the army, which could solve a large part of the military food problem.
For officers who have performed meritorious service or have been killed or disabled in battle, military land can also be set aside directly for rewards or compensation, thus saving a lot of money.
For these fields classified as military camps, a physical tax of one-twenty tax was levied. For the land awarded to soldiers, a physical tax of one-tenth tax was also levied as civilian land.
There is a tax of one for every twenty official lands, and one for every ten private lands, and they are levied in kind, that is, whatever the real estate is, they are levied. This can avoid increasing the burden of the common people on the unified levy of silver.
After all, the land does not produce silver. To pay taxes, people have to sell what they produce to get silver. In this process, they will definitely be exploited.
As for the adjustment of the tax rate, his reason is that the tax rate must be within a reasonable range, so that it can meet the needs of the court without burdening the people, and it must be a fixed tax that cannot be increased or decreased at any time.
At the same time, because the fields are fat and thin, the taxes should also be different. After all, the price of private fields varies twenty times, so it would be unfair if the taxes were the same.
So he proposed another solution, which is to divide the fields into five grades according to their fat and thin output. Then, the best fields are calculated in small acres. For example, one acre is equal to 240 steps, and one acre is equal to medium-sized fields.
One acre is 480 paces, and 720 paces is one acre in inferior countries, with 360 paces and 600 paces in between.
By adjusting the size of different fat and thin fields, the tax rates borne by them are actually consistent.
For example, one acre of upper field produces three shi of grain, while one acre of lower field only produces one shi. Now by changing the size of the acre, one acre of upper field is actually three times larger than that of lower field. In the end, the output will be the same one acre of three shi, and private farmland is levied an eleventh tax per mu.
, that is, three dou per acre.
It turns out that if one acre of thin land is taxed three dou, the actual tax rate is 30%. There is a huge difference between the two.
Either directly classify the fields and then set different tax rates, or adjust the land size by acre and finally use a unified tax rate, each has its own advantages.
However, although Zhu Yihai also feels that the Ming Dynasty's land tax rate should be re-established, the time is not mature now and he has to do things one by one. What he needs to do now is to divide the land into acres and fix the labor, so that local officials can no longer do whatever they want.
The science school and even the imperial court adjusted the collection, retention and use of taxes. The purpose of this step was to collect the taxes first, especially to let the gentry and officials pay the taxes.
Otherwise, no matter how you adjust the tax rate or whatever, if you can't collect it, it will be in vain.
As for the official land that has been clarified, Zhu Yihai still prefers to sell it to the soldiers rather than distribute it to them. First of all, the conditions for equalizing the land are not so good. How can there be so much land for equalizing the land? If it is given to the soldiers, do the officials want to equalize the land?
?Do people want equality?
What's more, the imperial court is very poor now, so it's natural to sell Arita for money.
Prioritizing sales to soldiers not only recovers their military pay and reward money, but also gives them reassurance that those with permanent property have perseverance. When soldiers fight and risk their lives, they must give priority to their future, not to mention getting promoted and making a fortune.
Let the soldiers get wives and have families, and then give them the opportunity to buy some land, then they will truly support Lu Jianguo and his new Ming Dynasty.
So from this perspective, selling land to soldiers actually has the same effect of winning people's hearts as equalizing land to soldiers. It can even sell a lot of money to subsidize military expenditures. Why not?